I prefer the open Landscape and the nearness of the Sea.....

ULF LUNDELL: Öppna Landskap 

Jag trivs bäst i öppna landskap,nära havet vill jag bo,
några månader om året, så att själen kan få ro.
Jag trivs bäst i öppna landskap, där vindarna får fart.
Där lärkorna slår högt i skyn, och sjunger underbart.
Där bränner jag mitt brännvin själv, och kryddar med Johannesört,
och dricker det med välbehag, till sill och hembakt vört.
Jag trivs bäst i öppna landskap, nära havet vill jag bo.

Jag trivs bäst i fred och frihet, för både kropp och själ,
ingen kommer in i min närhet, som stänger in och stjäl.
Jag trivs bäst när dagen bräcker, d'r fälten fylls av ljus,
när tuppar gal på avstånd, när det är långt till närmsta hus.
Men ändå så pass nära, att en tyst och stilla natt,
när man sitter under stjärnorna, kan höra festens skratt.
Jag trivs bäst i fred och frihet, för både kropp och själ.

Jag trivs bäst när havet svallar, och måsarna ger skri,
när stranden fylls med snäckskal, med havsmusik uti.
När det klara och det enkla, får råda som det vill,
när ja, är ja, och nej, är nej,och tvivlet tiger still.
Då binder jag en krans av löv, och lägger den runt närmaste sten,
där runor ristats för vår skull, nån gång för länge sen.
Jag trivs bäst när havet svallar, och måsarna ger skri






 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuOUev9EgI8



the text is Swedish if you'd like to translate it.  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

A Merry Christmas  and a Happy New Year to all my followers and readers. 

- and a peaceful New Year all over the world 

Best wishes
Grethe  

Mariager By, Mariagerfjord Kommune, Region Nordjylland

Today Mariager is a small town with 2527 inhabitants (2015). It lies on the southern side of Mariager fjord. Mariager lies in Mariagerfjord kommune and belongs to Region Nordjylland.
 
Mariager was a small village until the middle of the 1400, when a Bridgettine abbey was built. This

made the village grow into a market town with trade and handicrafts. There was later no effect on the town from the industrialization which means that it still has a medieval touch with many pretty old houses in the paved streets.

Mariager lies close to the beautiful Mariager fjord by the forested coast of the fjord. High slopes with forest rise behind the houses. Except for the abbey and its high tower all the houses are low. It was the Bridgettines who gave the town its name when they chose to place their Jutland abbey here and named it Mariager abbey. Mariager means Maria's ager = Maria's field (after Virgin Mary). 

There was already a small fishing village in the 1400s and a ferry for the traffic between the towns Randers and Aalborg, but the abbey meant economic progress for the village, and gradually flocked merchants, innkeepers and craftsmen to the town, and rich nobility began buying burial chapels by the church. Mariager abbey became a church of pilgrimage and one of few places in Denmark where people could buy indulgence for their sins. This made the church immensely rich.The pilgrims lead to a substantial revenue for the city's trade, and several guesthouses were built. The town's good times went on until the reformation in 1536, where the administration of the abbey was transferred to the Crown


 The decline for Mariager meant that when it finally got municipal rights in 1592 it had under 500 inhabitants. After this it was the raw materials together with fishing, farming and foresting, which made the basis for the income of the town. An important income was malt and spirits which were shipped to Copenhagen. 

Town Hall

Mariager got a pharmacy in 1816, and the town house was built in 1822  In 1829 a physician came to town and two years later a post office was established -  in 1853 a savings bank and street lights in 1859.  Mariager became service center for the hinterland and grew faster than in the abbey-period, but after the start of the Hadsund-bridge some of the trade moved to the town of Hadsund. 

Hotel Postgaarden

The old city section has kept its original street net, which forms an architectonic whole with old pavements and timbered, thatched houses, almost each house has a garden, which also gives a medieval mark. The town hall at the town square is classistic, the Hotel Postgården is from the 1700s and was earlier a vicarage, but since the 1800s it has functioned as a guest house. 

City Museum

Mariager city-museum is furnished in a pretty, old merchant house from the 1700s with an external gallery on the yard-side. Besides being a city-museum it has alternative art exhibitions and a kloster garden with medicine herbs. The town square is the most significant place in town. Here is also carved in the street a plan of the earliest parish church from the 1100s. 

by tourist and Saltcenter

The town has a small marina and a tourist boat

veteran railway site

Svanen which in summer sails from Hobro via Mariager, Hadsund and to the mouth of Mariager fjord. At the harbour is also Danmarks Saltcenter with café, a museum for salt mining, where people can visit a salt mine and a bathing salt lake with the byname Det døde Hav. A veteran railsway goes from the harbour to a small town Handest 17 km west. Mariager's landmark is Mariager klosterkirke from the 1400s, the tall building and tower stands on a hillside and rise above all the roofs of the town. 

by Mariager fjord

tourist boat Svanen

Mariager has a long tradition for preserving the town and its houses, and  it has a rich selection of special shops and grocery stores. Shipping and tourism also play a big role in the employments. 
Tourism is today considered the central income of Mariager.. In 2013 Mariagerfjord Kommune with Mariager by was certificated as a Cittaslow city. Cittaslow is a movement for cities which want to set focus on a more simple lifestyle. In Denmark are two cities certifacted: Mariager in Jutland and Svendborg at the island of Funen.






Assens between Mariager and Hadsund was earlier the home of a big part of Denmarks  cement industry. In the chalcerous soil in the chalk pits is one of the largest orchid presences in Denmark. The old smitty at Dania is a working museum and along the road by the fjord lie Assens Nyboder, the earlier houses of the workers from the factory.



Mariager klosterkirke was built in connection to the abbey in the 1400s. See my blog Church and Manor for article about Mariager abbey.




Source Danmarks Købstæder, Søren Olsen, 2000

photo: grethe bachmann

photo town hall: Google earth. 

The Sun always shines above the Clouds..............

Sunset, Gilleleje, Zealand

It is late November - and it is soon midwinter, the sun sets early in the afternoon. The earth in my garden is wet, wet, wet -  and the sun has no power in the short time it shows its face during the day hours. But from December 21 at winter solstice the sun will slowly return to its usual power in spring and summertime. And then we can sing "Here comes the sun......"




                                                                                
We do not worship and sacrifice to the sun like the ancient people did. The sun's power over mankind was always great, especially in the countries to the North, where the sun at midwinter is like a far disc,  pale, golden and cold as the moon  -   and in some places like in The Land of the Midnight Sun it disappears for a period. No wonder the ancient people tried to recreate the sun above the southern horizon, the warmth  had to come back to bring life over nature after a dark winter -  and when the sun appeared again, its return was celebrated with cheers throughout the settlements.

Trundholm Sun Chariot

Petroglyphs with sun sign

During Stone Age and Bronze Age the sun was one of the lifegiving powers which people feared the most, but it was also the power which was mostly worshipped. It was the first of the heavenly powers which was brought to the North with the first farmers and cattle breeders about 5000 years ago. When the sun chariot from Trundholm was found,  it was a proof that the sun was worshipped in ancient times. The sun chariot was the costiest thing people had, with a golden disc and a magnificent horse, and they always sacrificed their most valuable item to the sun god.

The horse was in Bronze Age a sacred animal, it was only used in religious celebrations, stallion fights and in the first sacred ploughing of the New Year. The chariot and the horse is an unambiguously witness that the sun was worshipped in early Bronze Age - or else the sun is in ancient times most often reproduced by a sign: a wheel cross, a circle, a spiral or a fully carved disc which is seen on some petroglyphs. It is known that in the near Orient and in North India the wheel was in ancient times a commonly used image of the sun. The circle or the ring is the simplest reproduction of the sun, and together with the spiral those signs decorated the disc of the Trundholm chariot.

Midsummer celebration, Sweden, 1969.

Although people was still worshipping the sun it lost some prominence during Bronze Age. The sign of the sun did not disappear. through the times and up till present, it was still there, seen mostly as a wheel with four or more spokes . A weak reflection has been kept in the sundance on Pentecost morning . Especially in spring and midsummer many places in the North and bordering areas to the south continued the fertility-belief, which was linked to the sun and the power of the sun. They rolled burning wheels and discs down over hillsides or threw them up in the air. A sign of the sun like plaited wreaths are still put on new buildings as a celebration or at a midsummer pole -  and no one wonder why or know that this is a continuation of a fertility cult.

Sami family in spring celebration.

A special source of information about the sun cult from Prehistoric time is probably the Sami people's worshipping of gods, which continued up till the 17th  and 18th  century. It was written down by officious Swedish priests and Norwegian missionaries,  who fought a destruction-war against this worshipping. This part of the Sami religion might be due to the contact they had with the Norse people in a very distant period.
 When the Sames got lost in the mountains because of bad weather and fog, they placed as a sacrifice to the sun a holed wooden disc : a wheel. On Christmas morning they saluted the sun and drank its tribute and took omens about good or bad luck in the year to come from the sunshine upon a brass ring in water. After the homecoming they drank a tribute to the fertility gods and brought sacrifices to the sun, the bones of the sacrificed animals were placed in a circle upon a sacred table - or meat hung up in a circle-bend wicker twig. The sun would then recognize its sacrifice through the sun signs. At midsummer wreaths of leaves and grass were hung up in honour of the sun.

Swedish Christmas cakes 16th century.

A link between midwinter's solstice, old ancient sun-belief  and the fertility of the next year,  were up till present time kept in the Swedish Christmas bread,which was decorated with the signs of the sun, the wheel and the spiral. The Christmas bread was stored in winter - and in spring it was crumbled and given in small bites to both humans and animals in the farm on the first day of the spring-sowing in order to secure a good harvest.
.









Archaeological magazine SKALK nr. 4, 1961: P.V.Glob, "Solens Tegn".
photo Gilleleje: grethe bachmann
other photos: wikipedia. 

The Famous Cat Maru

I AM MARU


 

 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgxL-PwmY7s&list=RDjgxL-PwmY7s=t=28








We have known Maru for some years here on my blog, and he is now so famous that it is difficult to find a new video without music and lots of other references.
But here is an old video from 2012.  Maru and boxes is always fun and a few minutes well spent.
He brings a smile to your face doesn-t he?


Have fun!

An unusual Sleigh Ride from Norway to Denmark -

Our climate has changed a bit and hard winters are rare, at least here in the Danish country. Some people still remember true winters with lots of snow and ice through the whole winter season -  snow for sleighing and ice for skating. It was a wonderfuul time for children.


In the old days, before motorcars arrived people either rode or drove in horse waggons. In the winter season they found their sleigh in the barn or another farm building. People had many varied horse waggons and horse-drawn sleighs. When the sleigh had been cleaned and was ready with furs and warm blankets inside, the horses were harnessed . They had got new safe shoes for the icy roads by the busy blacksmith.  Now the family was ready to take a sleigh ride through the snow.....                                                                                 .

                                                                                                                                                                                                       


A common sleigh was simple and could be used for both working use and for taking people on a sleigh drive -  in manors and other posh places they had some very fine sleighs with painted decorations,  some with carved decorations. A sleigh had usually one or two seats and a place for the driver on the back.

                                      

                                                                           

The sleigh drive is an elegant and romantic form of transport. There are many colourful 
descriptions of such romantic sleigh drives in Scandinavian literature. The horse or horses had to be equipped with sleigh bells, little ringling things, which  might be of silver. They were a necessary accessory, in order to tell other wayfarers that a big sleigh was coming near. A sleigh ran almost silently through the snow and was a  dangerous vehicle to a pedestrian.  A                 horse-drawn sleigh was used if people had to go to the city, to the church or on a visit - it was seldom used for long trips.

An unusual story is known about a sleigh drive from Norway to Denmark.

Venus passage

The date 3 June 1769 was by astronomers all over the world foreseen in excitement. A rare vision on the sky was expected, a Venus-passage, a phenomenon, which is like an eclipse of the sun - only that Venus cannot cover the whole sun but  only a small part of it. Some important knowledge was in waiting and several European states took the initiative to do something about it  In Denmark the young king Christian 7 invited his ambassador the Austrian-Hungarian Maximilian Hell to do some observations on Vardø at the Barents Sea in the northern part of Norway. Denmark and Norway had a Unity of the Realm at that time.

Maximilian Hell

Maximilian Hell was a Jesuit pater, but he had since 1755 very skillfully managed the emporial university observatory in Vienna. He got the allowance for the trip to Norway by empress Maria Teresia and travelled in 1768 to Denmark together with an assistant Johannes Sajnovics.

Vardø, island north east of Norway

Vardø means Wolf's Island in English. 
Vard = varg = ulv

It might seem odd they wanted to go to Vardø - almost as far north as possible -  but the calculations showed that the Venus-passage would happen at a time where the rest of Europe lay in darkness, except the northernest Norway, where the sun was low but up both day and night. The travel north was difficult, first across the Norse mountain roads to the city Trondheim and then by sea in stormy weather. It was now close to autumn in 1768 and the expedition was trapped in a small town by the coast, Kjelvik, the northernest parish in the world. Maximilian Hell met the parish priest Jens Eriksen Grøn and they became good friends

aurora borealis

The expedition continued   to Vardø and arrived here on the 17th October. On this part of the tour they had the assistance of the commander of the fortification Vardøhus, major Eckleff and 50 soldiers. Hell established an observatory which was finished at Christmas, and he did not waste time. He made observations of the aurora borealis and studied the phosphoresence of the sea water -  and he examined flora and fauna in the area. His assistant carried through studies of the Samic language.

And then came the 3 June 1769, there was a great excitement up to the date, bad weather could ruin everything but the time arrived and they were lucky. When Venus had done its passage and Maximilian Hell and his helpers had done theirs, a Te deum was sung and the canons of the fortress Vardøhus were saluting and the flag went up. Major Eckleff and several honoratiores were invited to see the star and they were celebrating with drinks.

The Austrian-Hungarian espedition - as it was -  started the home trip except for a two weeks visit by reverent Jens Grøn from Kjelvik, who told that he was not happy for his work as far north - and Hell promised him to talk to Christian 7, who listened to Hell's words. In the same year Jens Grøn became parish priest in the town Rudkøbing at the island Langeland.

Jens Grøn could not wait, he wanted to leave Norway as soon as possible, but the last winter ship had left the harbour in Kjelvik  Jens Grøn was resolute, he placed his wife and four daughters in a horse-drawn sleigh and began the long tour down through the winter-dressed Norway, a tour of 2500 kilometers. There is no information about the long difficult sleigh drive, he might have driven a part of the tour through Sweden ,  but he and his family arrived safe and sound to Rudkøbing where Jens Grøn started his new job.

The old sleigh was taken good care of because of this unusual travel from Norway to Denmark.. It is now at exhibition at Langelands Museum in Rudkøbing


Source: Archaeological magazine Skalk, nr. 1, 2004, Kanetur, Ole Mortensen

photo winter: grethe bachmann

other photos: wikipedia

Capricious Weather!

Saturday by the lake -  21 November 2015

Sunday morning 22 november from my window

My Christmas tree from last year 

It's snowstorm today! The web cameras in the roads show lots of snow almost all over the country Worst on Zealand right now.

Weather changes so fast!!

photo grethe bachmann 

Fussingø Forest, a mild November Day and a Norwegian Forest Cat.....

The last Days of Autumn. ....

Fussingø, the day before the leaves were all blown away by the storm.

Will we get a record-hot November again in 2015? The temperature yesterday was 16 degrees Celsius and some sleeping butterflies woke up and fluttered around..

Some people still wear short jeans - and on the jogging trip in the evening even summer shorts!
The air is warm both day and night.

The average temperature for a November day is 7 degrees Celsius.

Yellow/Green Beauty

Autumn, especially in poetry, has often been associated with melancholia - the summer has gone and winter is near. Skies are grey and the evenings are dark, but these present warm lovely autumn days of 2015 are not a breeding ground for melancholia, but maybe I should be at the forefront. You'll never know how things look next week!  So here's a little poem about autum from a master.

When a sighing begins
In the violins
Of the autumn-song,
My heart is drowned
In the slow sound
Languorous and long
Pale as with pain,
Breath fails me when
The hours toll deep.
My thoughts recover
The days that are over,
And I weep.

And I go
Where the winds know,
Broken and brief,
To and fro,
As the winds blow
A dead leaf.

 “Chanson d’Automne” by Paul Verlaine, from Poèmes saturniens (1866). Translated by Arthur Symons in Poems (First Collected Edition, 1902)

Some of the forest at Fussingø were laid out as untouched forest since 1992. The section is no longer used for timber or fuel. The trees live as long as they can. The dead trees are important habitats for mammals, birds, insects and other little animals. The forest will gradually turn into a kind of jungle with fallen and dead trees and a variation of trees growing up.

Cyclists in the forest

Lady with dog

old oaks by the road.

The path down to the forest.

The Fussingø district was inhabited since Stone Age. The first safe proof of human settlements is from the bondestenalder which begins 4200 BC. From this period are found many flint axes.  

the buzzard high up in the blue.

A hen in the road, the hens at Fussingø live a dangerous life. The whole flock was up in the traffic road a short minute before I took the photo, but they are very.very fast to get away from the traffic. They disappeared down in the garden below in the flash of a light.  

Fussingø slot in the background.

.

See Link:

http://www.fussingoeslot.dk/ 

Fussingø slot is today used for alternate exhibitions of art and arts and crafts. In other buildings are Nature School and Skov- og Naturstyrelsen. Fussingø is owned by the Danish State.

The German family  Skeel von Plessen owned the estate until the end of WWII, where the estate was confiscated by the Danish State as some kind of war compensation.

Fussingø slot is only open during the year in connection to various arrangements etc. The park is
open to the public all year.

Fussingø skov

Stævningsskoven . The coppice forest on the other side of the brook.

The coppice forest (Stævningsskoven)  is the earliest known form of forestry in Denmark It can be traced back to Stone Age in Denmark and further back in other parts of Europe.

The coppice forest began in connection to the peasants' need for fence, fuel, grazing for the livestock, poles, posts etc. The landlords had the right to use the upper section of the forest, while the peasants had to settle for what they could find in the low forest. The coppice forest was a smart solution for the peasants, since this type of forest developed an upper forest, if it was coppiced regularly - and in this way they could keep on their right to use the forest.

When new materials arrived in the 1800s like stone, bricks, stone dikes, earth banks and fences like wire and fossil fuel, the importance of the coppice forest disappeared and the coppice forests were mainly allowed to stay as they were.

an old fragile bridge

the old boat is still there

Well, here comes the ruler of the water mill!

Dear Cat, I see from the facts below that you are adapted to a very cold climate. Don't you feel it is too hot here? Maybe you should have a little hair cut? Oh no, that would be a shame. You are so beautiful, and you know it. Maybe you have adapted to the mild climate too. I hope you have, but you have really got a big beautiful and hot fur coat! Do you like ice cream? 

Last time I met this cat it was so aristocratic that it was not interested in talking to me. Let's see how the pretty cat behaves today.....

Facts: The Norwegian forest cat is a breed of domestic cat native to Northern Europe. This natural breed is adapted to a very cold climate with top coat of glossy long water-shedding hairs, and a wooly undercoat for insulation. It is a big, strong cat, similar to the American Maine Coon  breed, with long legs, a bushy tail and a sturdy body. The breed is very good at climbing, since they have strong claws. 

Hello, are you social or aristocratic today, dear cat?

What a cuddly cat!

Wauw, you've actually got autumn colours. So beautiful.

Bye, bye....I'll go find my good landlady. She's got some food for me. and maybe some ice cream !

Emeraldgreen ferns

See you next year at Fussingø............

The Mill Pond

Long-tailed tit - the afternoon light was fading!!

Nature's beautiful decay. 

Text and photo November 2015: grethe bachmann :